Cyclamen hederifolium ‘Lysander’

Photo by Gayla Trail  All Rights Reserved

At the time I took this photo there was another plant flowering with the tag Cyclamen africanum. As this site indicates, they were indistinguishable from one another.

It’s difficult to tell from this photo, but this flower (and plant) is very tiny. Its pot can fit comfortably in your hand. Adorable.

Who knew there were so many interesting cyclamens out there? Who knew there were all of these tiny little types from Africa. My cyclamen knowledge has been completely limited to the few they sell in the impulse buy section of the grocery store. I know nothing. Nothing!

Visiting Barry’s garden is both humbling and exciting all at once. It makes me realize (yet again) that I can never and should never get too big headed when it comes to my so-called plant knowledge. There is just TOO MUCH. An inexhaustible lifetime’s worth of fascinating plants to discover.

This is optimistic though, don’t you think? I have met a lot of gardeners (sometimes myself included) both beginner and experienced who are perpetually wringing their hands around the feeling of not knowing enough. But really, if the knowledge available to acquire is limitless, we never have to worry about knowing enough or god forbid, knowing it all. You will never know it all! I will never know it all.

We can all just sit back now and enjoy what we do know, and what we will discover tomorrow.

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Sweet Sorghum

Photo by Gayla Trail  All Rights Reserved

I took this picture at the Montreal Botanical Gardens where to my delight they had a bed of cereal grains growing in the edible garden section. I love this place.

The name was too long to put in the title line so here it is: Sorghum bicolor gr. Saccharatum ‘Black African’.

The name gave me some clues to its usage and in looking it up I have discovered that it is indeed used to produce a sweetener called sorghum syrup. The stalks are sometimes made into ethanol.

The internet also tells me that it is believed that the crop was introduced into the Unites States by slaves who brought seeds with them from West Africa.

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Fire Lily (Cyrtanthus elatus)

Photo by Gayla Trail  All Rights Reserved

Looks like a delicate Amaryllis don’t you think? That’s because it’s a member of the Amaryllidaceae family. You can find more information about this South African flower over here.

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White Hosta Flowers

Photo by Gayla Trail  All Rights Reserved

Every once and a while I climb down off from my hosta snobbery horse and realize they’re not so dull after-all.

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Soldier Beetles on Black Eyed Susans

Photo by Gayla Trail  All Rights Reserved

Yesterday, while visiting a series of test gardens, I witnessed legions of these gold and black soldier beetles (Chauliognathus pensylvanicus) aka Pennsylvania Leatherwing beetles squirming, frolicking and procreating up a storm all over a bed of ‘Tiger Eye Gold’ Rudbeckia.

Photo by Gayla Trail  All Rights Reserved

As I moved around the beds I observed that they only inhabited the flowers that perfectly matched their body colours. Interesting tactic for safety since they are likely quite vulnerable during these frenzied acts reproducing the species. When not procreating, I’ve read that the adults eat pollen and specifically enjoy goldenrod. However, this was a HIGHLY cultivated property and there was nary a goldenrod in sight.

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